Tonight I purchased my very first western style crossbow from New WorldArbalest, and with it I enter the realm of medieval archery. I'vealways been quite interested in the sport, just never had the moneyuntil now.. I am quite excited for first light on the morrow.

It was quite the pleasure meeting with you. I do hope thatwe can exchange conversation in the future.

Today was a bit wet here in CenTex, but I am hopeful for tomorrow. I am stilllooking around for places to purchase a good target. Went around to a fewB&M stores today and none of them had anything in stock. :-(

My significant other does have a target that has been used quite a bit by him,and I don't think I'll be able to go very many rounds before I destroy it. So..I will need to find something with haste. Any suggestions besides the standardfoam target? I was thinking of something like a canvas sack full of corn feed,but am unsure. I'll do a bit of reading this evening.

I have found the ethelyne-foam (ethafoam) targets stop bolts very well, even from powerful crossbows. You can get the yellow bags full of ethafoam or simple block ethafoam targets... some of which have replaceable center-blocks, which is a good idea. Ethelyne foam does break down under ultraviolet light, so you'll either want a simple cover for your target, or bring it inside when you're not shooting at it. Stacks of corrugated cardboard mashed in a press, or simply inserted into a cardboard box make very good temporary targets and hits give you a lovely, tight 'pok', but the cardboard gets chewed up pretty fast, and must be replaced with some regularity. Hay bales make poor targets: They'll generally stop your bolts okay, but bolts often disappear right into softer bales and never come out the other side. You have to tear up your bales to get 'em back. If you put a few inches of ethafoam over the face of the haybales, that makes a tolerable target backstop. Any other cool target ideas out there? Geezer

Didn't get a chance to welcome you, as I couldn't get to a computer for the last few weeks.

I'm glad you were able to get your hands on one of New World Arbalest crossbows and can now destroy some targets, Welcome the the Forums, welcome to the Guild!

I can't add much about targets, but I do have one I made a while back...basically it's something along the lines of what Geezer described > an insulation styrofoam sheet cut into sections and then layered to make a block about 12" thick....also I heard people made very nice targets my pouring two part expanding foam (used in prop making) into a mold of desired shape(like a large cube or wide cylinder).